Rev. 5: What a Show!

"9 They sing a new song:
‘You are worthy to take the scrolland to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
10 you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,and they will reign on earth.’
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 singing with full voice,
‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honour and glory and blessing!’
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,
‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might
for ever and ever!’
14 And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshipped."

Introduction

I have to confess--I am starting to love the Book of Revelation. The rich symbolism, the visual nature of the language, the images dripping with OT significance, the mystery and emotion, all are sweeping me up in the book as we study portions of it. And the passage for this morning is especially puissant. Its imagery has inspired some of the greatest creative geniuses of Western Civilization. We can't read v. 9 without thinking of the closing chorus of Handel's Messiah; we can't read the whole of Rev. 4 and 5 without being drawn to Book VII of Milton's Paradise Lost; Ingmar Bergman, one of the most thoughtful film directors from the last generation, was entranced by this passage; hymn-writers without number, including the 19th century Bishop of Calcutta, Reginald Heber, celebrated those who heavenly creatures who were "casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea."

But the action here centers on two things: the book and the Lamb, and those two things will be the focus of my comments. I will first discuss how the Lion (v. 5) is the Lamb (v. 6); then how the Lamb is worthy (vv. 9-10); and finally, how all worship the Lamb (vv. 11-14). Though I can try to dissect this passage analytically, by neatly describing three points, I feel as if I am trying to explain Da Vinci's Last Supper by explaining each character individually. The power of the Last Supper, and the power of our passage, inheres in its overall effect and unity.

I. The Lion is the Lamb

We are now in heaven with John, who has been in the Spirit since ch. 1, but now sees in heaven an open door (4:1). Doors invite us to try the handle or, if open (as here), beckon us to enter. Beyond the threshold is the most colorful, bedazzling array of creatures and visual effects--effects that would make Stephen Spielberg drool. In ch. 5 we have a two images/figures added to the mix: a book and a Lion. The book is sealed with seven seals, so affixed that no one is worthy to open them. In despair John weeps, because the seven-sealed book contains mysteries of the things that are to come. But an elder comforts John with these words:

"Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals" (5:5).

While pondering this unexpectedly good news John looks up and sees not a lion but a lamb:

"Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered.." (5:6)

As John is seeing his vision, the truth dawns on us: the Lion is the Lamb. It was this insight that was foundational for American theologian/preacher Jonathan Edwards in one of his most famous sermons: "The Excellency of Jesus Christ." Edwards' thesis was that there was in Christ "an admirable conjuction of diverse excellencies." This passage illustrates the "conjunction," where the Lion is the Lamb. But even more significant than Edwards' insight is the fact that the Lion now becomes the Lamb. We have visual hermeneutics right before our eyes. The Lion of the tribe of Judah (cf. Gen. 49) is now transmuted into a Lamb. This one imaginary transformation changes our whole understanding of power. The one who is worthy to open the seven seals, to disclose the future blessings and curses, is none other than one who is slain. Power to open the secrets of God rests with the one who has suffered. And that leads to our second point.

II. The Lamb is Worthy (vv. 9-10)

The Lamb has taken the book with seven seals from the one sitting on the throne. Before he opens it, however, the elders and living creatures sing a song to the Lamb. The song is called a "new song" (v. 9), which is reminiscent of the "new song" passages in the Psalms (e.g., Ps. 98) and the "new thing" of Is. 43, which I have previously exposited. I think it would be wonderful if you preach on this passage that when you get to this point you stop and do one of two things: (1) have the choir sing the final chorus from Messiah or (2) have the entire congregation sing a short chorus where these words have been set to music. In a sense the congregation then can become the elders or the living creatures or the countless myriads of myriads (v. 11) who will be singing the song.

But we ought not to miss the point--that the Lamb is worthy to open the book and burst the seals because he has suffered. The language in the Greek is even more "aural." Let me give it to you. The word "seal" in Greek is sphragis, a word that has come into English in a few obscure words (for example, the study of "seals"--not the creatures who inhabit the water but the things you affix on documents--is sphragistics); the word "slain" in Greek is sphagizo, and in the form it appears in v. 9 it is esphages ("You were slain"). Thus, we have the interesting verbal play here, that the sphago is worthy to open the sphrago...

All word play aside, however, the passage is powerful because of the idea that stands behind it--suffering makes worthy. Suffering allowed the Lion to transform into the Lamb; suffering enables the Lamb to take the book and open the seals; suffering thus moves human history along toward consummation. We avoid suffering for loads of very good reasons; but it is, ironically, the ones who suffer who attain a sort of worthiness that is absent to the rest. Christ is the great example of this kind of transaction, and he in his suffering self becomes worthy to open the seals.

III. All Worship (vv. 11-14)

When it becomes clear that Christ is the only one who can open the seals and that he is right there ready to do so, the whole heavenly scene erupts in song and praise. The picture in these verses is quite dramatic. I have never seen in literature a more powerful use of the conjunction "and" (kai in Greek). When I began to learn how to write in third grade I remember the teacher distinctly telling me that the use of "ands" should be curtailed because it created "run-on sentences." These sentences were the literary equivalent of a venial sin. Avoid "ands" and begin a new thought. But somehow the author of the Book of Revelation didn't have Mrs. Struck at Holmes School in Darien CT. And I am glad he didn't, because the profusion of "ands" in these verses (I counted 23 "ands" in these four verses) gives the sense of majesty and fulness that a series of sentences could never do. And so the heavenly chorus worships the Lamb, and the drama continues.

Conclusion

And the drama of salvation continues for us in this Easter season. Life blooms all around us, reminding us that the new life in faith is or ought to be fresh and new. The suffering Christ, the Lamb who was slain, is the Christ who accompanies us this Easter season. And that isn't a bad image for us in 2007, a year where we are finally realizing the kind of pain that we as a nation are inflicting on parts of the world. America is good, very good. But we have also inflicted and continue to inflict dramatic pain. A suffering Lamb might be just the one to whom we need to repair for wisdom and strength in this time.

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